Brussels, 07/03/2014 (Agence Europe) - The GSMA association (which brings together 800 telecom operators in the world) and 10 CEOs from major mobile operators have sent an open letter to European Commissioner for the Digital Agenda Neelie Kroes asking for more flexible competition rules and to help facilitate further sector investment consolidation.
Anne Bouverot, Director General of GSMA, sent an open letter to the commissioner, signed by the CEOs of the major European telecom groups: Deutsche Telekom, Hutchison Whampoa Europe, Orange, Telecom Italia, Telefónica, Telekom Austria Group, Telenor Group, TeliaSonera, VimpelCom and Vodafone Group.
According to the letter, “Europe's telecoms network operators are facing decreasing revenues [from €162 billion in 2010 to €142 billion in 2013] and reduced market values compared with operators in the US and Asia, and with players across the ecosystem. This is impairing our ability to invest in the communications infrastructure needed to put Europe back on the path to growth and jobs, and to restore its global competitiveness. ”
“We share the European Commission's view that a competitive telecommunications single market can help meet this challenge and underpin growth, employment and citizen welfare across the European Union”, the letter states. It highlights some key factors to achieve this, including the modernisation of European regulation, sector consolidation and reform of spectrum management in Europe. Interviewed by French news agency AFP, Ryan Heath, the spokesman for Kroes, indicated that they agreed on the fact that they needed to complete the single telecoms market and that there was a general consensus about the damage caused by European market fragmentation. Heath added that the first step that needed to be taken to resolve this problem involved finalising the connected continent regulation and that the following stages would then follow swiftly. (LC)